About Us

Our Product

ZergNet is the leading editorial recommendations platform on the Internet. We're committed to protecting the integrity of the publishing ecosystem by delivering only the highest quality content recommendations and providing 100% pure editorial content. Founded in 2012, ZergNet currently recommends over one billion articles every day, resulting in over 3 million daily visitors to premier content sites including AOL, Time Inc, CBS, IAC, NBC, Viacom, News Corp, Wenner, Warner Bros and many others.

Our Team

Reggie Renner

CEO

Reggie graduated from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University with a degree in Computer Information Systems. He focuses on the overall direction of the business, building strategic partnerships, helping clients and co-workers, and coding. With ten years of experience as a lead developer for startups, Reggie brings a combination of vision, knowledge, and execution to the team.

Mike Langin

CTO

Mike brings advanced security, coding, and infrastructure skillsets to ZergNet. He is responsible for managing developers, maintaining speed and security, and administering the servers and databases. Mike is a self taught programmer who took an early interest in both software and hardware security and scaling. Before founding ZergNet, Mike maintained over 15,000 domain names receiving millions of visitors a month. He brings this experience to the team and looks forward to the enormous scaling challenges ahead.

Brian White

COO

Brian helps shape strategic vision and operational functionality for ZergNet. He has more than 16 years’ experience in advertising technology and most recently was SVP, Global Business Development and Ad Operations at Vibrant Media. Prior to Vibrant, Brian served as Director of Strategic Business Development at Valueclick (now Conversant), managing a national business development and sales planning team. During his tenure, Valueclick grew to become the second-largest ad network in the US. Brian has also worked for 24/7 Real Media (now Xaxis) in the UK and US leading various divisions including business development, sales and product development.

Pete Schiecke

CCO

Pete manages ZergNet’s entertainment properties, which includes Looper, Nicki Swift, Grunge, The List and Mashed. Prior to ZergNet, he was most recently the SVP of Digital at Townsquare Media, where he founded Loudwire, Taste of Country, Ultimate Classic Rock, ScreenCrush, PopCrush and many other leading media brands. Pete also worked at AOL where he directed programming for over 250 streaming music channels.

Trey Blazic

VP, Advertising Operations

Brandon Caudill

VP, Business Development

Brandon is passionate about disruptive technology and executing on big ideas. He brings a diverse background of sales, marketing, business development to the ZergNet team. Brandon comes to ZergNet from a top 50 web publisher that experienced rapid growth. Brandon is responsible for increasing ZergNet's distribution and publisher network. Brandon has led teams, overseen cutting edge app development, launched new brands, and rubbed elbows with the Twitter elite. Brandon is very excited to help make ZergNet the industry leader and working alongside the brightest co-workers in the business.

Mike Harmon

VP, Digital Operations

Mike is best known for his dedication to the ZergNet community and uses his close relationships with publishers and readers to turn feedback into a better service. He works with the day-to-day activities of the network including the curation of content from our partner sites and educating the market about ZergNet. Mike is a technology geek who spends his free time soaking in anything to do with the industry. He always keeps his ear to the ground and goes out of his way to encourage feedback from users to help make better decisions as a company.

Jacob Leatherman

VP, Engineering

Mike Beamon

Sr. Director,Digital Operations

Mike focuses on forming strategic partnerships with publishers and identifying new markets for ZergNet. He does market research to help identify new niche areas where ZergNet may be successful, and helps launch those verticals by building relationships with publishers in the space. Mike brings a mixture of business development, marketing, and customer relations to the company. From day one, he was given the mission of growing the network and he does anything and everything to do just that.

Peter Cheng

Sr. Director,Strategic Partnerships

Ilaina Dassatti

Sr. Director,Publisher Accounts

Dash Morris

Sr. Director,Business Development

Casey Shea

Sr. Director,Content Strategy

Casey works to understand what people around the web are interested in reading and brings those stories to the ZergNet network. She curates content from hundreds of partner sites to bring only the most engaging and quality articles to the community. Casey brings a passion for pop culture, movies, and food to the team. She ensures the highest user experience possible for the community by ensuring the ZergNet network only promotes the most engaging and well-written content from our partner sites.

Branden Stall

Sr. Director,Video

Branden manages the day to day operations for Zergnet’s internal video studio. Prior to Zergnet, he founded Bold Creative, a motion design and animation studio in the Indianapolis area. He has also worked for productions studios both in the US and China.

Mitch Widau

Sr. Director,Strategic Partnerships

Mitch focuses on maintaining the most effective and efficient network by overseeing the performance of each of the hundreds of partner sites expecting quality results from ZergNet. He ensures there is a large amount of interesting articles from each partner site to create an enjoyable and highly functional content network. Mitch analyzes data from millions of clicks every day to identify areas where the network needs more attention. As click rates and engagement from readers change daily on every topic, Mitch identifies potential areas the editorial team can focus on to improve both user experience and network efficiency.

Cristina Aviles

Controller

Brandon Beasley

Frontend Developer

Justin Broach

Editor

Spencer Caudill

Editor

Collin David

Copy Writer

Based out of upstate New York, Collin David is a copy editor and script doctor for ZergNet. He cofounded one of the earliest geek websites, AllNerdReview, in his dorm room with Brian Rubin in 2002. He's been a contributing writer to Biography, Splice, Graphic Novel Reporter, ToyCyte, and was the content manager and chief editor for A+E's partner website, Collectors Quest, before joining the ZergNet team. He's also a published illustrator and designer when he's not juggling words.

Aaron Deal

Motion Designer

Alexa Elderkin

Editor

Alexa edits celebrity news and features for Nicki Swift. Prior to embracing the entertainment sphere at ZergNet, she worked overseas as a foreign affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Defense. Alexa brings 10 years of print journalism and public relations experience to the team, including reporting, editing, and photography in Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, and the Nashville area. She is also a certified yoga instructor, specializing in trauma-sensitive yoga for veterans. Alexa is a proud graduate of the Pennsylvania State University College of Communications.

Micah Emmel-Duke

Editor

Micah edits for ZergNet’s entertainment properties, including Mashed, Looper, and Grunge. Before coming to ZergNet, he was a freelance writer for Cracked and editor in chief at Listverse.

Lauren Fisher

Editor

Scott Harris

Copy Writer

Scott is a writer and script editor for ZergNet's digital entertainment streams. Scott has been involved in shaping online pop culture communities since the inception of the internet, and over the past decade has created content for websites including UGO.com, NextMovie.com, MTV, AOL, Moviefone, TV Squad, PopSugar, Film.com, The Huffington Post, and more.

Mark Hirschenberger

Social Editor

Mark manages ZergNet’s social media for Looper, Nicki Swift, Grunge, The List, and Mashed. He identifies trending topics in entertainment and creates branded content customized for each social platform.

Audrey Hirons

Editor

Jason Iannone

Editor

Jason is the head editor of Grunge, Zergnet's geek culture website, and he writes for it too whenever possible. Prior to joining Zergnet, he worked for six years as a freelance writer and editor for many different brands. Most notably, he was a columnist and layout editor for Cracked.com from 2013 to 2016. He also wrote and edited for Listverse, Holy Taco, TopTenz, Media Shower, Zug, and well over a dozen others, before tiring of the nomad lifestyle and making Zergnet his permanent home.

Colin Kerr

Business Development Manager

Kristina Klavins

Editor

Jon Ledford

Video Publishing Manager

Jon manages the video publishing department for ZergNet's entertainment properties, including Looper, Nicki Swift, Grunge, and The List. Before joining ZergNet, he was a writer and editor at Townsquare Media for sites such as Arcade Sushi, ComicsAlliance, GuySpeed, and ScreenCrush. He graduated from Rowan University with a Major in English and a Minor in Communication Studies.

Colin Noll

Web Researcher

Jacob Parsons

Ad OperationsManager

Blake Prenatt

Software Engineer

Sydney Prorok

Media Buyer

Carmen Ribecca

Entertainment Writer

Carmen Ribecca is an Entertainment Writer for Nicki Swift. Before coming to ZergNet, he was a senior editor at CPXI and SpinMedia, and wrote as Photo Boy on The Superficial.

Brian P. Rubin

Managing Editor

Brian is the managing editor for ZergNet’s owned and operated sites: Looper, Nicki Swift, Grunge, The List, and Mashed. Additionally, he's also the script supervisor for the company's script team, which produces YouTube videos for all five of its entertainment properties. Currently based in Minneapolis, Brian has worked as a professional writer for over a decade. He cofounded the website AllNerdReview in his dorm room with Collin David in 2002, and he's been writing for dollars ever since. He was a full time reporter and associate editor for Ellenville's weekly newspaper, the Shawangunk Journal, and wrote extensive feature articles for magazines like The Chronogram, and Geek. Brian also worked as a blogger and scriptwriter for Machinima's Inside Gaming Daily, as a regular contributor for the websites CollectorsQuest, BestTechie, and ReadWrite, and as a feature writer for Minneapolis's City Pages. His quest to find a good slice of pizza in the Twin Cities remains unfulfilled.

Charlie Schmelzer

Media Buyer

Tyler Schroeder

Editor

Andy Scott

Editor

Andy is the co-editor of Nicki Swift, ZergNet’s portal for all-things celebrity. He works closely with the site’s team of writers to pitch, develop, edit and publish stories ranging from breaking news to large-scale features. He previously worked for Moviefone, AOL Television, Celebuzz and the Rachael Ray show.

James Song

Director,Business Development

Ryan Sexton

Video Editor

Ryan Shea

Editor

Alex Sprague

Assistant Video Editor

Mallory Traylor

Editor

Mitchell Young

Editor

Press

How two gamers built a secret weapon to get huge web traffic
TNW | Jun. 24, 2015